Limited voters registration ends
The 10-day limited voters’ registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC) which started on April 28, 2016 ended on Sunday
Advertisement
The exercise, which was expected to add some 1.2 million voters to the electoral roll, was primarily intended for Ghanaian citizens who have turned 18 and would-be first-time voters to register.
That will enable them to qualify to vote in the upcoming general election to be held on November 7, 2016.
While the exercise went on successfully at some centres, at others the initial stages were fraught with challenges.
When the Daily Graphic visited the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra on Sunday, the registration officer, Mr Rauf Alhassan, said that two more centres were created on the campus last Friday to address the long queues that had characterised the exercise which had started there with one centre, report Victor Kwawukume & Salomey Appiah.
Extension
However, indications were that during the period of the exercise, students were writing their examinations and, therefore, had little time to queue to register.
While some had finished their examination as of on Sunday, others are expected to finish today. This category of students has, therefore, asked for an extension of the registration period.
Appeals by students of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) for centres to be opened on their campus were not heeded by the EC.
Other Trending Stories
A senior security officer at the UPSA, Mr Francis Dompreh, said students of the school who wanted to register had to go to the UG, the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) School or the EC office at the Rawlings Circle at Madina to register.
Some students who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they were unable to register.
At the Emmanuel Eye Clinic Registration Centre at East Legon, the registration officer, Mr Emmanuel Bondzie, said turnout on the last day had been massive.
Foreigners
He, however, said the major challenge on the last day had been that the two major political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), allegedly brought in foreigners and underage persons to register.
Efforts to reach officials of the EC on phone to comment on the developments were unsuccessful, as the calls and text messages went unanswered.
The exercise took off successfully at most centres but even before it entered the second day, it was marred by violence at some centres, especially in the Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
In Kumasi, authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) had to appeal to the EC to set up more than two registration centres on the campus to ensure that more students were not disenfranchised.
Sege
From Tema, Della Russel Ocloo writes that the final phase of the limited voters registration exercise came off smoothly at Sege in the Dangme East District in the Greater Accra Region following the beefing up of security in the community to calm the volatile situation that had characterised the exercise last Saturday.
Police reinforcement from the Tema Regional Command beefed up security in the town to enable electoral officials to conduct a mopping-up exercise at the Presbyterian Primary School Registration Centre after they had previously been held hostage by some residents.
The Tema Regional Police Commander, DCOP Paul Awini, told the Daily Graphic in Tema that confusion had broken out about 2 p.m. on Saturday when the registration officials returned to the centre to conduct a mopping-up exercise for persons who could not register during the first phase to do so.
The registration officers, however, were met with fierce resistance by a group of people numbering about 100.
The group, according to DCOP Awini, tried to prevent the officers from mounting their equipment to carry out the mopping-up exercise.
Advertisement
The group had misconstrued the mopping-up exercise as an attempt by the registration officers to register people more than once.
Explanation
The officers had explained that they had to go back to the centre for the mopping-up exercise because of complaints that many potential voters were not able to register during the first phase of the exercise.
But residents in the community were of the view that the officials had different motives.
Reports suggested that the aggrieved residents held the registration officials hostage for more than three hours.
Advertisement
DCOP Awini indicated that following the near violence, the police deployed more personnel from Tema and Ada to beef up security for the registration officers to do their work.
Sunyani
Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah reports from Sunyani that only a few people were seen at registration centres in Sunyani as the clock ticked on Sunday to end the 10-day limited voters registration exercise.
Generally, the exercise was smooth, with agents of the two major political parties, the NDC and the NPP, collaborating with each other.
That was contrary to the acrimony and violence that characterised the exercise in some parts of the region, such as the Asunafo South and the Tano South districts.
Advertisement
Apart from the NDC and the NPP, no other political party had representatives at the centres.
Registration centres
At the Ahenboboano registration centre, 133 people had registered as of 2 p.m. when the Daily Graphic visited the centre last Sunday, with only seven people in the queue waiting to be registered.
According to the registration officer, Mr Evans Kwame Kyere, nobody picked a form to challenge the eligibility of people who showed up to be registered.
The NDC and the NPP registration agents there were seen chatting, while the registration officials went about their duties in a relaxed atmosphere.
At the Workers Canteen registration centre at Zongo, 384 people had been registered as of 2.15 p.m. on Sunday.
An official at the centre, Ms Doris Kyeremaah, told the Daily Graphic that 29 forms had been issued to challenge the eligibility of some of the people who came to the centre for registration.
They were challenged on the basis of age and the fact that they were not known to be resident in the area.
When the Daily Graphic visited the centre, the machine which was being used to collect data had broken down, while about 10 people were still waiting to be registered.
Ms Kyeremaah explained that they were waiting for officials of the EC to rectify the situation for the exercise to continue, adding that about 10 people who were in the queue when the incident happened had gone home.
Tamale
The 10-day limited voters registration exercise ended peacefully in the Tamale metropolis in the Northern Region, writes Zadok Gyesi from Tamale.
Although it is common practice for many people to rush to participate in national exercises on the last day, it was different this time, as most of the registration centres in the metropolis had few people in the queues when Daily Graphic visited some of the centres.
At the Dungu Central Mosque Registration Centre, for example, only a few people were there waiting to be registered.
The registration officer, Mr Danaa Sumaila Napari, said most of the first-time voters in the community had already registered and that it was only students of the University for Development Studies (UDS) who were coming to register.
He, however, expressed the hope that many of those who had not yet registered would to do so before the end of the exercise.
Speaking with the Daily Graphic at the Sakasaka Presby Centre, Ms Jemilatu Alhassan, a 20-year-old student of the Tamale Polytechnic, expressed worry that although there were not many people at the centre, the registration officials were not fast in the handling of the computers, thereby delaying the process.
Rashid Imoro, a registrant, expressed delight that he had been able to register, saying, “I came here last Friday but they said I was not 18. So I waited for my father to come to prove to them that I am 18.”
Ho
From Ho Tim Dzamboe reports that the 10-day exercise by the EC ended in the Volta Region with mixed feelings.
This is because the NDC claimed that the opposition parties had adopted an aggressive posture throughout the exercise, as checks and balances were mounted at every registration centre to prevent the registration of unqualified persons.
The Volta Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr John Kudjo Gyapong, however, said the posture of the opposition could not prevent the party from achieving the target it set in the region, claiming that about 8,000 potential voters were registered within the first five days of the exercise.
He expressed the hope that 10,000 potential voters would be registered by the end of the exercise in the region.
For his part, the Volta Regional Chairman of the NPP, Mr John Peter Amewu, said the exercise had not been fair, alleging that he had personally intercepted a registration crew entering Togo to conduct the exercise there.
The Volta Regional Director of the EC, Mr Adukpo Dogbey Selormey, said everything had been on course during the exercise and that the NPP had rather tried to dictate to the EC what to do.
He said all the political parties were duly informed about the normal schedule of the relocation of registration centres and that the law allowed people who had doubts about the eligibility of a potential voter to challenge that person.